Just what I was gonna say, nuke ‘em!If too big for the nuke box, then stick ‘em in the conventional oven and bake the bugs outta them! Go low and slow. The goal is to roast the bugs, not the wood.The first thing to do is debark ‘em. Bark = bug magnet.Best: Go Marius Hornberger on ‘em, and get rid of the bulk of the waste. Easier to turn while green. When dry, you only need to make them round again.

You have the answer to your question above but for future reference try this.Before storing any wood dust it well with boric acid. You can find it as roach powder such as Bengal. Get the brands with the high percentage of boric acid, It works for most all pest around the home and shop and is completely safe.

That’s red headed ash borer larvae. They love osage orange and mesquite and ash. They start out under the bark in the sapwood. I’d say go a head and turn the wood and you’ll turn through them most likely. Edit, I see you’re in Texas like me, so I’m even more sure that’s what they are.

Even that I nuked the logs I turned through some live ones in the turning today- loiblb

How do you know they were alive and not just ‘fresh’ :)

I hit them all the time.. pretty sure they are dead, but by the time they splatter all over me and the lathe, I guess it doesn’t really matter! Nothing like getting splatted with bug goo in the morning – that’s half the fun.

Cheers,Brad

-- Brad in FL - To be old and wise, you must first be young and stupid

Microwave will not penetrate more than an inch into the wood, so you are only able to kill the ones on the outside if any at all, I doubt you can kill them by sticking them into a microwave for a bit.

To kill al insects in wood that can be used to make pallets for instance that can be used for in and export, the wood has to be heated through and through for quite a while to be than considered safe.

Just checked the requirement, the core of the wood has to be heated to at least 56 degrees Celsius (133F) for a minimum of 30 minutes

I have used a handful of mothballs with some turned wood in double bagged plastic bags that had some bugs in it.

This much thinner wood than a whole log, I left in the bags for several months, and than after taking it out, I would place it on some black plywood and left it there for weeks, so that if anything survived the telltale wood dust would show up, I never did have that happen.

Whatever you continue to do make sure the wife is not around and you remove all traces and sign of you being there, otherwise bugs and insects will be the least of your concerns as you lie in hospital recovering from crippling injuries as a result of your folly in her kitchen!